§ Mr. Don FosterTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport (1) what trials have taken place under the auspices of(a) the Strategic Rail Authority and (b) his Department relating to rail freight since June; what assessment is being made of these trials; when the outcomes of these trials are expected to be published; and if he will place related documentation in the Library; [78815]
(2) what the (a) agreed outputs, (b) type of scheme and (c) timetable for introduction are of the winning scheme under the Strategic Rail Authority's Logistics Competition by (i) Blue Circles Industries, (ii) Excel and (iii) Minimodal; what progress has been made; and what the timetable is for further implementation of the schemes as originally outlined; [78818]
(3) what the involvement of his Department was in the Strategic Rail Authority's Logistics Competition; and when trials of these schemes (a) were due to begin when the winners were announced and (b) will now begin; [78819]
(4) what representations have been received and what assessment has been made by his Department of the Strategic Rail Authority's cargo-sprinter train trials; what representations it has received; and what discussions the Department has held on the subject. [78816]
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§ Mr. JamiesonThe SRA's press release, issued on 13 June 2000, provides a description of each scheme. The agreed outputs of the SRA's Logistics Competition are part of the contracts between the applicants and the SRA signed in January 2001 and are commercially confidential.
The wagons and inter-modal units for the Blue Circle Industries project were delivered this summer, with trials commencing in September. A prototype container was produced in spring 2002 for the Minimodal scheme, with trials taking place during the summer. The first trials of the Excel scheme were completed in July-August 2001 with the second trials completed in spring this year. This project has now been completed and Excel are due to provide a final report for publication by the end of the year. Once published this and the reports of the other two schemes will be placed in the Libraries of the House.
My Department has received a number of representations about the competition and is kept informed on its progress by the SRA, but it has not been involved in the assessment of any of the entries or subsequent trials. The SRA is not assessing the trials, as the aim of the competition was to fund companies to take forward their projects and undertake commercial trials in order to demonstrate the concept to the market.